Back to Whidbey

Spent a few of my precious spring break days over on Whidbey Island. (Yes, we've been there before, but we had such a nice time it seemed worth repeating.)


Packed the car with all we'd need:



Crossed onto the island at Deception Pass:



Stopped at Knead & Feed for some pie:



Not the best restaurant ever (and do *not* ask them to split a check! yikes!), but the pie (marion berry) was pretty good:

Oh, for those of you following Emily on Twitter and/or facebook, sorry about the cross-posting . . .


Got to our hotel, the Inn at Langley, and started to relax.

Here's one of the many things I love about that place:



Speaking of reading material, I was super excited to have time to read a couple of papers that weren't written by students while Emily hit the spa:



Also watched some basketball there.

KU ended up losing, but we had a toast to their unexpectedly successful and enjoyable season.


One day was sunny, so we did a bike ride, which was a great way to see some of the scenery and cute small towns on the island. (Again, apologies for the cross-posting . . .)

At Maxwelton Beach


Next day it rained, but even that looked nice.



Yes, we spoiled ourselves. Yes, it was great. Yes, I do have a syllabus to prepare for tomorrow. Cheers.

Gardens and Shadows

You probably heard about it already, but I just loved this Times story about the Obama's planting a vegetable garden at the White House.

Some local children helping Michelle start the garden.

Such a great idea! Fresh, local food. So jealous! We signed up for a plot in the community garden around the corner from our apartment building, but the wait is 4-5 years . . . guess now I'll really have to find a way to hang onto this job!

Curious about the details of the presidential pea patch? The White House blog post about the garden offers a pdf file of the planned layout. Looks delicious!
Love those Obama's!


On a totally unrelated note, I think I've figured out the copyright situation on my forthcoming paper on Plato (and I think I've caught all the typos!), so if you wanted to read it, there's a link up on my Seattle U page.

Enjoy! And please feel free to share any thoughts or ask any questions that come up!


Speaking of Plato, I should probably get going & try to do a little reading before Emily gets home & our 4.5-day Spring Break begins. (Yay!)

Cheers!

Happy

Lots of great cards, gifts, and warm wishes. (Must've responded to like 25 facebook comments--so there's one nice thing about being on there . . .)

Thanks, y'all.


Might do a longer post Monday or Tuesday, but for now I'm so busy with all the basketball. Timing has been great, since lately I'm doing grading and giving exams, both of which are compatible with watching the games.

And how is that possible? Thanks to the incredible wonders of technology:

Amazing!


On Saturday, got together with some CHS folks to watch the Huskies.

Kristin, Bowie, Justin, Sara, Yancy, Emily, Matt

(We even have a little tournament pool going, so that's been fun.)

Huskies lost, unfortunately, but it was a fun afternoon with some great people!


Now if KU can keep winning, everything will be just right.

Um, Awesome!

As you may recall, we had an account with grand central.
Well, we just got upgraded to google voice. So cool!

One number that rings all phones; free text messaging, with searchable storage of messages; and voicemail transcription!

Sample call:


Here's the automatically generated transcript:
"hi it's emily just calling to see how you're doing you can call me back at (206) 499-5413 or send a letter to forty eight hundred thirty seventh avenue help last alright bye hey"


Screen grab of the whole thing:

Pretty good!


Okay, for more details (and some lame and annoying CNBC guys), check out David Pogue:



[Update 07:49 19 March]
For completeness' sake, a shot of the whole window:

Like having an email account for all of our phone calls, voicemails, and text messages. Awesome.

Busy? Or Just Lazy?

Either way, sorry I haven't said much lately.

Here's some things, then.

It's March, and KU is doing pretty well. Not great, but for a "rebuilding" year things are looking awesome.

Our friend Wendy dyed her hair crimson and blue for tournament time:



In related (?) news, Emily had a mani/pedi at Julep, thanks in part to Lisa Hahn (née Fox), a friend from Helena (still haven't actually seen her, but I'm following her on Twitter):

Some recent press got things started, and it all sounds pretty fun. I may just have to go too next time!




Photo from stevevance

No segue can get me here, but I think it's lame, depressing, and just plain wrong that they're going to rename the Sears Tower. Is nothing sacred, Chicago??



And finally, some photos from yesterday:

Taking a text-message break on the way to St Joseph's Church for the SU choir concert.


Ever since we visited Merrica in Tokyo in 2003 I've been looking for the sort of plain, unsweetened canned or bottled green tea they sell there . . .
And now Emily found some!

Yay!



[Update, 10:47]
Oh what the hell, how about something sad?

Publisher's closing remarks:
"As for the paper, tonight will be the final run. So let's do it right. This is a great newspaper and has been for a long time. Let's show the world it still is. Let's show them what we can do, one more time."

Mittens and Such

Well, so much for the desk helping with my online presence . . .

Oh well, just a busy time of year, I guess. But as you may have heard, I did finish a book review, so that's something.

In the meantime, Emily got a cute new bag from Pravina Studio

Funny how it happened: it was, of course, all thanks to good old, overexposed Twitter.


She also got us tickets to see Neko Case in June! Woo!

Who? There was a great story about her new album on NPR the other day.

Oh what the hell, here's a track:

This Tornado Loves You - Neko Case


Not terribly exciting, but here's my first day of March vanity pic:



Perhaps more exciting: Emily's just about finished her mittens--just in time for spring! :)